Wooo! Wonderful! Wonderful research about the indoor gardening with leds!

What's the details about the leds you use? white? how many watts?

It would be nice if there is a comparision between leds and sunlight growth!

xlzerolx wrote:Hello,I'm new here and fairly new to plants. I just decided to start keeping plants indoors since I live in apartment. I don't have a balcony, but still wanted a garden of some sort. The solution was indoor growing with LED lights.

My journey all started in the spring of 2010 with trying to keep plants I bought from a grocery store near by. I wanted to try LED's and my first attempt was rather pahtetic with a wimpy 12 watt LED light. It was a cree LED over 1 plant. It was obviously not enough light for my liking.

In about 3 weeks I realised I wanted more and these lights just weren't cutting it. After doing more research I ordered all the parts for my new power light. THe parts eventually arrived and I began to build.

I used the most powerful bridgelux LEDs out there, 50 Watts each for a total of 100 watts of power.

My first test subjects were an almost dead lemon thyme (from lack of light) and a polka dot plant. The light fixture is resting on 2x4's in this picture and not hung up.

I later purchased more plants and built a light stand to hold the fixture.

the lemon thyme began to perk up after being repotted and trimmed.

The polka dot turned BRIGHT dark pink!

I also purchased more plants:

My basil when I first got it:

In about a month the basil just exploded with growth and started to flower. And then I realised flowering was bad for the taste so I have been chopping the flowers off ever since.

The lemon thyme has just keeps getting bushy and requires constant cutting back.

An oxalis given to me as a gift 3 months ago.

I've been giving away plants and acquiring new ones as my confidence grows. Right now this is the current set up with plants and light. You can see how crazy the oxalis has gotten! For some reason it won't stop flowering. I heard you have to cut them back when they go dormant. I'm waiting for ti to stop flowering before i can do this

I have under the lights right now, a european dwarf olive, a truly tiny banan plant, a strawberry guava, a turkey fig tree, and a strawberry guava plant.

Also under there are some various cacti, mexican cilantro, bay tree, basil, oxalis, a ficus, and an orchid that was given to me to try to revive because it wasn't doing too good. It's so far put out a new leaf... progress has been slow with it but it looks promising

Here is the truly tiny banana plant. It puts out a new leaf every 2 weeksThe turkey fig can be seen in front of it

The plants are over growing each other, and I've order parts for a second set of lights. It will be done soon and the dwarf olive and turkey fig will be moved under them.

clorisluo wrote:What's the details about the leds you use? white? how many watts

I don't think he specified the specific model number of the LED he ordered.He said he used 50-watts leds. The picture shows 2 leds. So 2x 50-watts.He also stated he is using growth hormones or something on them.

clorisluo wrote:It would be nice if there is a comparision between leds and sunlight growth!

As with all lights, to do a comparison one would have to know the specific properties of that specific model number of the LED in question.

One can't just pop in a LED, proclaim more PAR, and then say buy them from such and such manufacturer. That would be total BS.

As an example, a normal white led (lets say 2x 50-watts, as is shown here) will give about 30 more PAR than 2x 40-watts T12 florescent lights. And only about an average of 10 PUR (+/-) more.

A setup with 2x 40-watts T12 florescent lights will cost you 34$.The person above stated he put in 400$ for his 2 LED's.

Then there is the big question of what part of the spectrum is actually being used?

It's easy to proclaim more PUR and more PAR. I can turn the headlights on of my car and proclaim this. But, is it meaningful for the plant? Likely not.

Also when someone is proclaiming more PUR (as is the case here) without specifying the wavelength(s) of the light, that again is meaningless and... and well... BS (I hate to put it that way, but I'm being very blunt).

If someone is doing this, and then states they are going to grow a fruit tree like this (as was stated here)... while the lights are 2 feet off the top of the little plants... well.... hmm...

As a hobby, yeah I would try this for fun, which I may do next fall. But 2 lights (total set-up cost 400$) these better be very specific lights at very specific wavelengths of light with a defined and measured PUR value for each wavelength.

I think what the person did was fun and neat. Heck I will likely give this a shot. But, I am calling this out as bordering BS with the 2x 50-watts LED's 2-feet above the plants and every plant flowering and coming back from the dead.

Even Nasa's research on this couldn't sustain plant life like this and grow flowering buds for 8 plants with 2 white LED's. I am calling this for what I think it is.

If anything, I would put my money on the growth hormones being used.

After I read all this it seemed like someone was ramping up for a commercial.